Shaun White Withdraws From Slopestyle Event

The first big news out of Sochi surround USA snowboarder Shaun White.

He decided to withdraw from the slopestyle snowboarding event because of the “potential risk of injury.”

Here is White’s statement:

“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA,” White told TODAY in a statement. “The difficult decision to forego slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of. With the practice runs I have taken, even after course modifications and watching fellow athletes get hurt, the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on.”

It seems that White isn’t the only snowboarder with concerns, Finland’s Roope Tonteri told reporters that it was “pretty sketchy,” adding, “I just don’t want to get injured. It’s not a really fun course to ride.”

Now, hopefully those Russians don’t mistake White for a stray dog.